Enterprise Support Services

8. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the progress made on adjusting the mandate of Enterprise Ireland to better support small indigenous exporters; and the specific changes being considered. [66665/26]

I am very supportive of this Government's ambition to grow our indigenous enterprise base. The programme for Government places a very strong emphasis on backing small businesses, scaling indigenous firms and increasing Ireland's export capacity. Will the Minister of State update us as to progress on expanding the mandate of Enterprise Ireland to better support our small businesses?

I thank Deputy Boland for her very important question. Supporting the growth and internationalisation of small indigenous exporters is a key priority for my Department. Through Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise office network, whose mandate includes supporting small businesses to develop and grow, our Department provides a continuum of supports to assist businesses at every stage of their export journey. Our Department's White Paper on enterprise to 2030 sets out a target of 2,000 new exporters by 2030. To help to achieve this objective, Enterprise Ireland established Get Exporting, a new national export accelerator programme, to build ambition, capability and market-entry readiness among potential first-time exporters. Get Exporting provides expert-led workshops, digital resources and one-to-one guidance to develop an actionable export plan for small indigenous companies with little or no export experience or sales. Get Exporting is delivered in partnership with the local enterprise offices, Údarás na Gaeltachta and InterTradeIreland, ensuring that companies with export ambitions can avail of consistent and clear support to simplify their export journey regardless of their existing agency relationship. Enterprise Ireland also offers a range of market access grants to assist companies that are starting out on their export journey. These supports include the digital marketing capability grant, the evolve strategic planning grant, the market discovery fund and the strategic marketing review. Enterprise Ireland works with more than 4,500 Irish companies that are exporting or are in the early stages of their exporting journey. Of these EI client companies, some 3,000 are small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. These companies can benefit from EI's international trade missions, trade event programmes and buyer visits, which are instrumental when growing and scaling internationally.

I very much welcome the target of 2,000 new exporters. The Minister of State might update us on how much of that might be made up of SMEs or even microbusinesses. I have worked as an SME and I supported SMEs in my own business. Many report a gap between the supports provided by the LEOs and Enterprise Ireland. They are often seen as too small for Enterprise Ireland. We really need to make sure we are supporting all of our businesses right across the sector. For example, an agrifood business in Fingal needs to get supports not only from the LEO or Enterprise Ireland but also from Bord Bia. We need to make sure that these supports are joined up and that we are not asking businesses to complete three different sets of application forms or go through three different channels. We need to help them. They do not have extra capacity to deal with the administrative burden. We need to do everything we can to make it easy for them to access supports and new markets.

I concur with those sentiments. From dealing with businesses, I know that the jump when you go from an LEO to Enterprise Ireland can be a challenge because a business may not meet the criteria. We are looking at all of that within the upcoming budget to see what we can do to make sure our agencies do not allow anyone to fall through the cracks as a result of the criteria businesses must meet when moving from the local enterprise office to Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland market advisers provide client companies with access to local market expertise, market intelligence and business connections to support export growth and international expansion. Through this network, companies can receive practical advice on market entry strategies and introductions to potential customers, partners and other key stakeholders in overseas markets. In a similar way, our LEOs, which operate in each of the 31 local authority areas, provide advice, mentoring and financial supports to early-stage exporters through initiatives such as the export business advisers network and the market explorer grant. The export business advisers assist companies in researching, planning and commencing exports while the market explorer grant supports businesses to investigate and enter new international markets by covering up to 50% of the eligible costs, to a maximum of €10,000 over an 18-month period.

I thank the Minister of State. I have two quick questions. Are there any plans to develop tailored, specific supports for certain sectors? I think of sectors like food innovation, new methods of construction technology or even medical devices, as we have many medical device companies in Ireland and it is a growing area. In terms of market diversification, with global uncertainty, it is really important that we support our businesses and in particular our SMEs to diversify. What is the plan for diversifying in Europe and outside of Europe?

The point the Deputy raised about supporting businesses so they are not going to three different agencies for the same type of support, and having that co-ordination, goes right back to the ethos of what the Minister, Deputy Burke, has been trying to do on diversification and simplification. For a long time, we know businesses have felt burdened by the bureaucracy that can be involved in going after these grant applications but also who they go to for what. There is a concerted effort being driven by the Minister, Deputy Burke, and through our Department to ensure there is simplification, which is not just an Irish objective. The EU Presidency this year gives us a great platform to drive that right across our 27 member states. That is certainly one of our ambitions as well. Over the past decade, exports by EI-supported indigenous companies have increased by 94%, reaching a record €38.86 billion in 2026, an increase of 8% on the previous year. This demonstrates the significant progress being made in developing a resilient and internationally competitive cohort of indigenous exporters, well-positioned to seize new opportunities and navigate an increasingly complex global trading environment.